AMD Vishera FX8350 Piledriver Review

Introduction and Technical Specifications

We think it's fair to say that the Bulldozer FX8150 was one of the biggest disappointments we've experienced here at OC3D. Most of us cut our teeth on AMD processors, and we had high hopes that the 8 core behemoth would finally bring AMD back in line with Intel. To say it didn't is rather understating things, but thankfully AMD knew that the FX8150 wasn't remotely living up to expectations and so they returned to the lab to refine the concept.

Having suitably beavered away to smooth off the edges, today sees the launch of the Piledriver FX8350. Based upon the same basic principles of the FX8150, eight big cores and high clock speeds, does the performance match up to its Intel rivals or is the 'two AMD cores = one Intel core' equation still in full effect?

Technical Specifications

Whenever a new piece of hardware is released the company involved also give a press kit out, which highlights the key features and explains which of the competitors models they expect their product to match up to. For AMD and the FX8350 their key target is the Intel i5-3570K, the Ivy Bridge replacement for the brilliant i5-2500K. Considering this is a quad core CPU with no hyperthreading, it doesn't fill us with confidence that AMD have made an eight core CPU that has the performance of an eight core CPU. However it's worth making a note of, as if AMD state it's a match for the i5-3570K then that is what we shall be largely comparing it to.

Out of the box at 4GHz, and with identical 8MB of cache for both the L2 and L3, there isn't an obvious improvement over the FX8150 so hopefully the under-the-hood changes will bring some extra performance.

Generally speaking the Piledriver die is similarly laid out to that of the Bulldozer. The die has the same layout of cores in the corners with their own L2 cache, and the L3 cache making up the whole of the middle section. at 315mm2 it's the same size as the Bulldozer was too.

AMD are claiming gains of 15% from the FX8350 when compared to the FX8150, and we're going to need to see at least that, especially if it's to compare to the boss of the Intel midrange.

Most Recent Comments

I don't think AMD are going to be in the desktop CPU market much longer. They have had a loss of $157 million in earnings and are sacking 15% of their employees. They need to pull something out of the bag to either compete with Ivy or for Haswell next year, other wise I can't see them having a place in the market.Quote

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